University of Dundee School of Law

Dundee Law School

The Scrymgeour Building
Type	Law School
Established	15th Century
Head of School	Professor Stuart Cross
Students	600 approx.
Location	Dundee, Scotland
Affiliations	University of Dundee
Website	www.dundee.ac.uk/law

Coordinates: 56°27′25″N 2°58′41″W / 56.457°N 2.978°W / 56.457; -2.978

The Dundee Law School at the University of Dundee, Scotland provides undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Scottish and English Law. It is the only institution in the United Kingdom to permit students to qualify into all three UK legal jurisdictions. It is based in the Scrymgeour Building—named for Henry Scrymgeour, a 16th-century legal philosopher from Dundee—the Law Library is based in the libraries building, both on the university's main campus. An internal reorganisation at the university in 2015 led to the Law School becoming part of the School of Social Sciences.

The origins of the law school begin with the foundation of the University of St Andrews, around 1413. A group of Augustinian clergy, driven from the University of Paris by the Avignon schism and from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge by the Anglo-Scottish Wars, formed a society of higher learning in St Andrews, which offered courses of lectures in subjects including law. Through several centuries the teaching of law in St Andrews was incorporated into St Mary's College at the University of St Andrews. By the late 1800s, St Andrews was contending with geographic isolation and dwindling numbers of students, whilst a university college was burgeoning in nearby Dundee. Law lectures had commenced in Dundee in January 1866. Following several aborted attempts at various forms of incorporation and association, in 1890 the university college began to establish closer links with the University of St Andrews and it was incorporated into the university in 1897. The campus in Dundee later became known as Queen's College, with the teaching of law formally transferred to Dundee in the 20th century. In 1967, the independent University of Dundee was created by Royal Charter, incorporating the former Queen's College, including the School of Law. St Andrews became, and remains, the only ancient university not to offer the study of Law.